High density parallel printing of microarrays

摘要

A method for printing a microarray on a substrate having a substrate surface is provided. At least one probe reservoir and at least one capillary bundle comprising a plurality of individual capillaries is provided. The output ends of the individual capillaries are secured in a print head such that the output ends of the capillaries are substantially coplanar in an array in a facet of the print head. The capillaries have a capillary pitch P. Probe is transported from at least one probe reservoir to the output ends of the capillaries. An array of probes are printed on the substrate such that the printed probes have a probe pitch of approximately P/N where N is an integer greater than one. Also provided is a method of associating proximal and distal ends of a plurality of capillaries in a capillary bundle. A plurality of fluids are loaded into the distal ends of the plurality of capillaries, each capillary having a unique fluid being loaded therein. The plurality of fluids are transported from the distal ends of the plurality of capillaries to the proximal ends and printed onto a substrate to form an array of spots, each spot corresponding to one of the plurality of fluids. One of the capillaries is registered by identifying the fluid forming one of the spots in the array of spots, matching the identified fluid with one of the plurality of fluids loaded into the distal ends of the capillaries, and correlating the location of the spot with the capillary loaded with the matched fluid.